vacation day 13: washington dc

Since we were so close to Washington DC, we thought we would spend a day at the museums.

We started at the natural history museum.

We also watched a 3D movie. The movie itself was really good...especially these birds that bombed the water. The 3D part we have mixed feelings on...some was really good and looked cool, but some of it just was blurry and made us a tad sick. I especially had problems with birds flying through the air.

We had a few more hours before everything closed so we also stopped at the air and space museum. With a heavy emphasis on the space part. Below Ben is holding his phone, which now has more computing power than the big thing behind him. Ah, how times have changed.

oh, one more picture.

I haven't had any Flurry pictures lately and am missing her. This is the closest I found.

Vacation day 12: leaving

Today we left. :(. It was sad, but we were also ready to come home. We had a few hours before we had to leave for the airport, so we were still able to get in a few last swims.




The trip really went quite smoothly. Customs is a pain, but there isn't much I could do about that. None of the bottles in the suitcase broke. Actually, the most annoying part of the trip was listening to some guy complain to a credit card about a charge refusal for our entire dinner. I could give you all the details,but I'll spare you the pain. It did give us a bonding time with the neighboring table though.

vacation day 11: this and that

On our last day, we didn't really do anything too special. We relaxed around the pool in the morning and then tried out some different chairs on the grass in the shade for the early afternoon because they put up some new, big umbrellas.

This is the view from those chairs.




We actually had a sunset without too many clouds on the horizon!



For dinner we went to a restaurant outside the resort called the Coal Pot. We had a table right next to the water and so we could see all of these little fish swimming around. And then big fish came! There was also a swooping bird that we think was trying to catch the little fish. The food was very good, but the menus were written on chalkboards and then set near the tables. I've never been in a place that has done that.

Vacation day10: the pier

Today we ended up doing a lot around the little pier that is here.





First we went snorkeling. We looked all around the cove, only to find grass-fish. Then we went by the pier and found many real fish...brown ones, blue ones, small ones, bigs ones, stripped ones. It was a cool find.





For dinner we had a private dinner on the pier. It was delicious and romantic.

vacation day 9: frisbee

Today was another very relaxing day. We hung out at the beach a bit and played some frisbee.






We also read, ate, got slightly pink (but not so much as to hurt).



Oh, and we kept an eye on a giant moth that was in our "living room". Then suddenly after dinner it was gone. It didn't move at all during the day though.



I've also been enjoying a lot of banana foods while here. For dessert ewe had a delicious fried banana and I've been eating a lot of fried plantains. I wish fried plantains were a side option more often In the US

vacation day 8: scuba diving

Today we went scuba diving. It was a nice day for it because it was cloudy and periodically rainy, but that doesn't matter much when you're u deer water. Since we couldn't take pictures of the cool things that we saw, we made the hand motions afterwards.

We dove twice. The first dive I kind of was having a hard time...I couldn't sink and needed help staying down. but we got to play with a sea spider, saw some eels waiting for food with their big teeth, and lots of iridescent fish and coral. I also got to scare some sea anemones. The second dive went much better. I still didn't sink very well, but I also didn't float right to the top either. I figured out how to sink somewhat, so could control my position a lot more.

We saw a huge sea turtle. I have no idea what it was doing, but it looked it like was just trying to climb the coral.



We also saw another eel. this one was much larger than the others and was moving around.



We also saw a lobster.

vacation day 7: kayaking

Today we went to explore the island that you can see from our room. (It's the one between the two trees below.)




We made it!



It turns out there is an abandoned building on the island. we explored for a little bit and then returned home. Going back was much harder because if we stopped paddling for too long we started going the wrong way. I'll admit, my arms are a bit sore now.

Just as we got back to our room and stepped into the pool it started to rain.



It was rainy on and off for the rest of the day, but it didn't really interfere with our plans and reminded us how beautiful this place is...even in the rain.

Vacation day 6: zipping

Today we went for a gondola and tip line tour through the rain forest. I'll admit, we were expecting longer zip lines than what they had, but it was still a lot of fun. Our guide also knew a ton about the rain forest and animals in it, so it was interesting to learn some of that information.

I'm not posting many pictures of the rain forest itself because the camera just didn't do it justice.












And of course, we spent time reading and relaxing.

Vacation day 5: rain

Today the weather forecast on Ben's phone called for rain all day.

The above picture is the closest we got to any rain. :)

Today I also had some delicious chocolate croissant things:

It was another relaxing day...a lot of swimming, eating, napping, and reading.

We also decided to play Catan the card game again. We played it all the time during our honeymoon, but had to shelve it about four years ago because we got too competitive about it. Well, today we took out one of the cards that seemed to determine who was going to win. I thought it worked well, but then I was also the winner. We'll have to try a few more games with the rules and see how it goes.

After dinner we went star gazing. It was actually a little sad because we only found one constellation that was familiar. I also found a lot of triangles. We did try and use a star chart app to help us find constellations, but it just wasn't quite working.

(It's the night sky. No, I don't think you can see anything in the picture.)

Vacation day 4: horses

Today we went on a horse back ride. It was nice because there was a place by the ocean that served as a stopping/eating point, and allowed us to get off the horses often.











Here's the beach. This is my artist shot of the day.



We also got to swim with the horses. I think this is a once in a life experience for both of us...riding bareback is so uncomfortable! It also seemed like something the horses should enjoy because they got
to cool down, but Ben's horse sounded like it was growling the whole time (which might have been a good thing, but it sounded really weird).






Although most of the time wasn't this bad, we both felt like we were going to fall off a time or two!

Vacation day 3: relaxing

Today was a relaxing day. It pretty much went like this: eat, swim, read, swim, read, swim, read, eat, red, nap, swim, read, swim, read, swim, read, eat, read.

I know, a rough life.

Housekeeping came twice today (which was rather unexpected).



This is the view from our deck.



Here is Ben reading. Behind him you can see the outdoor shower.



Our pool



The sunset



A crab! They're hard to spot, but they have holes in the sand all over the beach.



Our villa from the beach side.

Vacation day 2

After getting up way too early this morning, remade it to the airport and our flights without any serious issues. hurray!

Then I got my surprise...the airport was on the south of the island, and so we took a helicopter ride up to the north part of the island, where our hotel is. Oh, I've wanted to ride in a helicopter for several years now. The roads are really bad and we got to see how the island looks like from the skies, so it was really the perfect time to do such a thing! It was a lot of fun.













PS. I know this is a day late but the Internet is down in our room...hopefully to be fixed soon, but we didn't realize there was another place we could go until later.

Vacation day 1

Today started when I woke up before my alarm. It was rather sad, but at least I had some quiet chores to do before Ben woke up. Then Jess came over for breakfast! We've never done breakfast before, but then usually I need to work during breakfast time. It was nice.

Then Ben and I started our pre trip errands...hair cut, oil change,and package shipment. With labor day weekend, we were a little nervous that they were going to take forever...and they really didn't! We got right in at every place. and to top it off, I met Kaylee from Firefly. ok, maybe it wasn't her but it was who she would be if she lived now and not in a time of spaceships. she was one of the mechanics at the garage, looked a little bit like her, and even talked like Kaylee talked about starship engines. It was awesome.

The drive went ok. We had quite a bit of traffic around Harrisberg, but everything else wasn't too bad. We ate at a recommended restaurant. I had polenta. I thought it was going to be a pasta type dish based on the other ingredients in it, but it wasn't. It was still really good, but I had no idea what I was eating (besides cheese and tomatoes...I could identify those.). Anyway, it's a "peasant" food made from corn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polenta)

and now we're in the hotel! It'll be an early morning.

Thursday: Work

today was a great day. I finished the stuff I needed to get done around noon, got some stuff working on my macro, and then left a bit earlier than normal.

I'm getting excited!!

Wednesday: Flurry

Flurry has taken to sitting in the sink a lot more lately. I guess it doesn't
T surprise me much...if I we ere a cat it seems like it would be comfortable and cool.



Not much else today...we went out for dinner with some people from church and that was fun.